OMAHA, Neb. - The Creighton men's tennis team outlasted the UMKC Kangaroos on Thursday, earning a 4-3 decision in a three and a half hour match. The Bluejays improve to 2-0 on the season by defeating the Summit League defending champions.

"Our guys came out fired up right away today," said head coach Tom Lilly. "They knew how important the doubles point would be to get and they came out on top right away."

Creighton won all three doubles matches, earning the doubles point early. Sean Mathison and Ryan Norman defeated Gustavo Guerin and David Heckler 8-3 in the No. 3 doubles, followed closely by Kyle Obermeier and Elliott Baker ensuring the point win with an 8-3 win over Tomas Patino and Conner Edwards at the No. 2 doubles.

"Our No. 2 and No. 3 doubles got up early by breaking serving sets right away. It set the tone for the rest of the match for us."

Billy Paluch and J.T. Christian finished their doubles match last, holding on for a 9-8 win in No. 1 doubles over Grant Fleming and Cameron Schoenhofer.

UMKC evened up the score 1-1 by winning the first match at No. 4 singles when Cameron Schoenhofer defeated Norman 6-1, 7-5. Creighton then charged back, winning the next two singles matches in straight sets. Christian defeated Gustavo Guerin 7-6, 6-1 at the No. 3 singles and Baker downed David Heckler 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 6 singles.

Obermeier then won a three-set match at the No. 2 singles to give Creighton a 4-1 lead and clinch the win. Obermeier defeated Tomas Patino 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. UMKC won the final tw singles matches, as Conner Edwards defeated Gabe Nagy 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in No. 5 singles and Grant Fleming ousted Paluch 7-6, 5-7, 10-7 (playing a 10-point tiebreak due to the match already being decided).

"I thought our guys fought right until the end in every match. While we might not have won every singles match, I am very proud of our effort today," said Lilly.

The men's tennis team has a busy weekend ahead of them, as they host South Dakota State on Saturday at 7:00 pm (with the women's team also hosting SDSU at the same time) and then travel to Nebraska on Sunday to take on the Huskers. Full coverage of the matches will be available on www.gocreighton.com.